Alan Rickman on Harry Potter, Louis XIV and Alice in Wonderland

Alan Rickman is a versatile English actor, classically trained, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a veteran of numerous productions on London's West End and on Broadway.

Rickman's upright, forbidding manner and measured, churlish voice has made him a memorable movie villian in "Die Hard," as the Sheriff of Nottingham in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," and as Severus Snape in the entire run of Harry Potter movies. A generation of moviegoers grew up hearing Rickman say "Harry Pot-TER" as if the word was something foul that had stuck to his shoe. And he snaps a mean cape.

Rickman's latest project is a costume drama
, "A Little Chaos,"
about the design of the gardens at Versailles. Rickman plays Louis XIV and directs a cast that includes Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Stanley Tucci. He talked about the production, his long career, and how wearing a black wig in the Potter movies helped prevent him from being recognized on the street.

How did you get involved in a movie about the construction of a garden at Versailles?

How indeed? I should probably need to be arrested for saying yes to a project like that were it not for the fact that at its heart it's a love story and a subtle one and a slow-burning one that needed the right context for it to live properly. That's what I recognized on the page. Then it became kind of a compulsion to do it, really, because less and less time is being taken onscreen with relationship films. It takes a lot these days to get into bed together.

Did you always want to direct it?

I think as time went on, yes. I spent a lot of time working with the writer, Alison Deegan, but I was directing in the theater during that period. I wasn't free to direct a movie until I finished with Harry Potter responsibilities. I had spent a lot of time with her just kind of being a structural engineer with the script, and then as time went on it slipped into a kind of inevitability.

What about the casting? Did you always know who you wanted to play King Louis XIV?

Certainly not me! (Laughs) As time goes by and you get close to being able to shoot it and Kate is free and her schedule is open ... the budget would be helped immeasurably if you have a Louis that you didn't have to pay (laughs).

Is it a weird feeling to watch yourself onscreen, especially as a director?

It's awful. I haven't got any alternative, though. I was saying to somebody else recently that vanity goes out the window very quickly because you have what you have and it's "Unflattering lighting? Hard luck." You've just got to use it. Working with an editor is the most crucial relationship and you've got to become objective about yourself. You sort of become another person.

Do you give yourself notes?

How would you do that? (Laughs.) I suppose you could sort of talk to yourself. Most of the scenes are two-handers -- a lot of it is just me and Kate talking to each other. If you can believe that you're talking to each other then that's a huge start.

After so much time working on the Harry Potter movies, were you looking to do something different?

I did do lots of different things the whole time. For example, while I was shooting Harry Potter I was also appearing in "Private Lives" in London on the West End and on Broadway, and I was making things like "Sweeney Todd" and "Love Actually" and "Snow Cake" and other movies. I was directing in the theater as well, Strindberg and a modern play about Israel and Palestine.

In a way, they choose you, projects. I don't know that I was looking to do something set in the French 17th century but it happened.

What about your visibility after Harry Potter? Do you get recognized more often? Do people yell "Hey, Snape!" at you?

It depends where you are. Certainly not much in England because everybody walks down the street staring at the pavement. That's a relief (laughs). Honestly, I never expect it because that long black wig is a huge disguise. It doesn't happen as often as you might think it would. It's such a kind of strong outline -- black wig, black eyes, white face -- that seeing me running for a cab or something is not the image that people associate with the character (laughs).

Is that a relief?

It just is reality, I'm glad to say. It means you live a normal life. Private life is important, and Ralph Fiennes and I were always comforted by the fact that we had big disguises in the films and we were able to have private lives. I go to the supermarket, and I don't have any trouble (laughs).

Looking back at your career, how do you feel? Are you surprised at all you've done?

I don't think anybody ever feels particularly settled if you choose to be an actor or a director because you're always having to look in the mirror. All the stuff you've done was "then," and now you've got to think "now what?" You've got to keep moving forward. Cate Blanchett said the thing about the horizon is that as you move toward it, it gets farther away.

I'm lucky to be still working, and I'm aware of the fact that I'm at the mercy of writers and directors and their imaginations. You always want to be surprised and not settled.

What are you working on now?

Well, I've done my contribution to the latest Alice in Wonderland film. And now for something completely different, I am the caterpillar again (laughs). I've got a film called "Eye in the Sky" which is a film about the moral responsibilities governments face regarding the use of drones.

You know, Shakespeare is forever and CGI is very recent. What are the challenges of working in special effects movies like Harry Potter or Alice in Wonderland for an actor?

When you're on set, usually you've got some lines or something to say and you're saying it to someone and it's being photographed, and your job is to make it believable, to have a real conversation with somebody, whatever the agenda is. Usually the CGI is all going on behind you and it's green and has orange crosses on it. You're not looking at it. You're looking at about 100 people with clipboards and behind cameras and holding meters and lights. In a way, that captive audience is like being in the theater. However sophisticated it gets, you don't know what it's going to look like. What you're looking at doesn't change. It's still a film set of people which is a bit like an audience so really what's happening inside your head is the same.